No. 14 Gonzaga snaps three-year home losing streak to BYU

SPOKANE, Wash. — BYU’s winning streak in Spokane is over.

Johnathan Williams had 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Rui Hachimura added 15 points to help No. 14 Gonzaga survive upstart BYU, 68-60 Saturday night, snapping a three-game home losing streak to the Cougars in a sold-out McCarthy Athletic Center.

TJ Haws scored a game-high 22 points with four assists to lead BYU (18-7, 7-5 WCC), and Luke Worthington added 16 points and three rebounds for the Cougars.

Yoeli Childs had 14 points, 10 rebounds and four assists for BYU, while leading scorer Elijah Bryant was held to a season-low four points and three rebounds. The junior from Gwinnett, Georgia, was 2-of-6 from the field and held to a mere two free throws in the second half.

"They do a great job every year of focusing on your best scorers," BYU coach Dave Rose said. "It left a lot of opportunities for other guys, and Luke was really good tonight. Eli is capable of making a lot of those plays tonight, but it wasn’t for lack of effort. He gave us all he got."

The Cougars were held to just 3-of-19 from 3-point range, while Gonzaga (21-4, 11-1 WCC) made six threes to hold off their West Coast Conference rivals.

The margin proved to be the defense; the Zags shot 44 percent from the field to 45 for BYU.

“If we had made a few more threes, it’s probably a different story,” said Rose, whose team lost back-to-back games for the first time in 2017-18. “This is a good team, but we had a tough time from the line.”

Both teams went back-and-forth in the early stages of the game, but things changed on a block called against Dalton Nixon.

Williams hit 1-of-2 free throws, but Corey Kispert scored on back-to-back possessions, including a 3-pointer from the right wing with 9:47 left in the half, to spur an 8-0 run and a 24-17 advantage.

After BYU cut the deficit to three on Worthington’s layup, Gonzaga ended the half on a 10-4 run to take a 36-26 lead at halftime.

Still, the Cougars believed they could extend their Spokane winning streak after Thursday night’s 76-69 loss at Loyola Marymount.

“It was a completely different team today, and I’m really proud of our guys and how we competed,” Worthington said. “It sucks, and we can’t count it as a win. But we played hard, and if we can play like that, we are going to have a great February and this can be a very successful team in March.”

Gonzaga shot 50 percent from the field and ended the first half on a 10-4 run to pull away for a 36-26 lead at halftime. Williams and Killian Tillie each scored nine in the first half for the Zags, who held the Cougars to just 1-of-9 from 3-point range.

But Gonzaga opened the second half making just 1-of-7 from the field, and BYU cut the deficit to four, 39-35 on Haws' 3-pointer with 17:24 remaining.

The Cougars chipped away at the lead, tying the game at 43-43 on a pair of free throws by Bryant. As soon as the visitors pulled even, though, the Zags scored five points in 30 seconds, including Josh Perkins’ triple to go up 48-43 at the under-12 media timeout.

Zach Norvell Jr. put back his own missed 3-pointer to cap an 8-2 run and put the Zags up 55-47 with 5:59 remaining.

But the Cougars weren’t done yet.

“When we were down eight, we felt very confident that we would come away with the win. That’s how this team is,” Childs said.

BYU used an 8-2 run of its own, including six-straight points by Haws, to pull within 57-55 with 4:04 left in a game it had previously won in Spokane for three-straight years. The former Lone Peak standout scored the next seven points for the Cougars, tying the game at 59-59 with 2:37 remaining.

But the Cougars could get no closer as Hachimura, one of the only native-born Japanese players in NCAA Division I, and Norvell hit key buckets down the stretch for a 6-0 run to end the game.

"They’re a very deep team," Childs said of Gonzaga. "They have their rotations down, and they are a top-25 team for a reason.

"Hat’s off to them; they played a great game."

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